West Street School Open House

In April, we had the open house for West Street School, which ends up being like mini art show for me.

Here's some close-ups of the work that was on display.

The 3rd graders created Big Mouth Creatures out of clay. They sculpted a pinch pot and turned it on its side, then sculpted different pieces to turn the pinch pots into creatures and learned how to score and slip to attach pieces.

The 2nd graders created paper weavings out of one warm color paper and one cool color paper. They used watercolors to paint their warm and cool color papers.

The 1st graders learned about self-portraits. They drew a self-portrait and then we used liquid watercolors to blow paint the hair. Students had a lot of fun creating their Crazy Hair Self-Portraits.

The kindergarteners learned about making prints. They made colorful prints using different potato mashers.

More Fall and Winter Projects (again sorry they are late)

The fourth graders at East Meadow created their own Costa Rican Ox Carts. We talked about Costa Rica and the importance of the ox carts and how they have become a national art symbol. They also incorporated the use of radial design into the wheels of the ox carts.

The fifth graders worked on creating their own Aboriginal Art Work based on traditional aboriginal art of Australia. We discussed the use of the dots and how each piece of art tells some sort of story, whether it is something that happened or a story passed down through generations. The students told a story/memory that happened to themselves. If they could, they used traditional symbols and if needed made up their own symbols to tell their story.

The sixth graders learned about the Kuna people of Panama. We looked at and discussed the Molas made and worn by the women. Students created their own paper molas working from top layer to bottom layer the way the Kuna women make their molas.

Fall Projects (Sorry it's so late)

I had all the photos taken of the fall projects that students were working on and then I found out I was pregnant. I was feeling under the weather for awhile and then the holidays happened. Needless to say things got pretty busy. So here's the fall projects update, better late then never.

The 2nd graders drew and painted a still life of pumpkins and gourds from direct observation. First they drew the objects with oil pastels and then used watercolors to paint the still life. The oil pastels created a resist, which allowed their marks to still be seen, even after painting the still life. First picture is of the set up still life.  Then some in progress photos and finally some finished examples.

The 3rd graders created Spooky Houses inspired by Victorian Architecture and the painting "House by the Railroad" by Edward Hopper. We looked at the painting and had a group discussion about the mood or feeling we got from the painting. Then each table looked a pictures of Victorian Architecture and as a group looked for common features in each photo. After the table discussion, each group shared what they came up with to the whole class. Students drew their houses in white oil pastel on black paper. We used cool colors to paint our backgrounds. Lastly, students cut their houses out and glued them to their background. Here's some in progress photos and some finished examples.